Historically, surveillance camera systems were often proprietary/closed-standards systems. Surveillance cameras were directly wired to a local video storage system and the image data from the cameras were compiled into matrix views for real time viewing at possibly a security guard station or back office video monitor. Each camera typically required significant installation time and adjustment because of their “hard wired” connection. In addition, the local video storage system was typically a video cassette recorder (VCR) located in a network room or the back office within the premises being monitored.
More recently, internet protocol (IP) surveillance cameras have become increasingly common. These cameras utilize standard protocols over wired and/or wireless networks. Operators can often control and send many of the setup parameters over the networks. The captured image data is sent for storage in possibly a local network video recording (NVR) system, which may also distribute the image data for display on desktop or mobile devices.
At the same time, the trend has been to utilize remote cloud image data storage systems for storing image data from surveillance cameras. While the surveillance cameras are typically purchased by the organizations and mounted within their premises, the storage of the image data will often be leased from a service provider. Such a solution can be attractive to smaller organizations such as stores, small companies, and local offices that want to reduce installation and maintenance expenses. Operations upon the image data such as retrieval of previously recorded video can also be provided as part of the service.
Remote cloud image data storage systems offer a number of advantages over local image data storage systems. Because the storage provided by these systems is located remotely to the premises being managed, organizations utilizing remote storage systems as part of their surveillance camera systems have fewer components to buy and install, which lowers both purchase and depreciation cost. Organizations can also pay on a per usage basis for infrequently used value-added services. Finally, the service providers of the cloud storage systems bear the responsibility of maintaining and upgrading the storage systems and their capabilities, the cost of which the service providers can share across their managed clients.